Muted
by cynx-17-kh
Summary: Dan and Phil had just finished filming the video that would explain the mysterious book trailer that would be released later on that night. The day was going well up until Dan heard a soft thump of something hitting the floor coming from the lounge. Fearing the worst, Dan rushes to see if Phil was okay, only Phil wasn't in the lounge. So then... What fell? Rather, WHO fell?
1. Chapter 1

My day started out how every other day had started out this summer. It was probably somewhere around 8:30 in the morning on a typical Wednesday in July and the first of the standard four phone calls from my mother to wake me up again had just started. I was more awake than usual which was saddening. I wasn't too terribly sad though, seeing how VidCon started tomorrow and I was anxious to hear from Troye or at least see a fan sighting of him because the little shit just disappeared last week after changing his profile picture on all of his social media to three yellow petals with a white background. What are you planning, Troye... I snapped back to reality when the music from my phone floated back into my head. I had forgotten that it was ringing. I may have been more awake than usual, but I was definitely not fully awake.

I sat up and located my phone, answering it with a soft utterance of the word, "Hi."

"Oh, you're up," my soft-spoken mother replied, shock evident in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm up, Mom."

"Just, by the sounds of it. Okay, I just wanted to make sure you were up and moving. Do you remember everything that you have to do today?"

"Yeah, Mom." That was a blatant lie. I had no idea, but I could figure that out when I was more awake. I knew that if I answered the phone, I wouldn't get the next three calls from her because she would think that I was awake. She had this habit calling me at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, and eleven to make sure that I was awake. Each missed call would be accompanied by a frustrated voicemail, her tone becoming angrier with each one.

"Okay, sweetie. Have a good day and call me if you need anything."

"I will, Mom. See you tonight."

"Alright, kiddo. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom."

As I hung up by hitting end, then tossing my phone to my carpeted floor, I yawned and nestled further into my nest consisting of 5 pillows and my down comforter. The phone had landed with a soft thud and probably slid across the floor a little. I was pretty sure that the hems of my sweatpants were somewhere around my knees, but that's what I got for wearing oversized clothing to bed. My hoodie on the other hand, was still situated on me like it had been when I went to sleep about 3 or 4 hours ago. The sleeves still covered my hands in the sweater-paws Dan Howell fashion and the bottom of it went just past my butt.

I was comfortable, and I really didn't want to get up. I knew that I had to go on a run today if anything. But I just wasn't feeling it. I mean, I still had six and a half months before I got shipped out, right? I had time...

As I was about to fall back asleep (which was no huge feat considering the sunlight streaming in through the window perpendicular to my bed and hitting my face), I heard my phone buzz loudly.

"Fuckin' hell..." I muttered. "Stupid thing must be up against my clarinet case or something..."

With a groan, I sat up, disentangled myself from the comforter and placed my feet on the floor because obviously the world wanted me to be awake right now. As I stood, my sweatpants, which had indeed been squished up to my knees, slid to their full length. They were too long by at least six inches, and the hems pooled gently around my feet. I reached my hands above my head and closed my eyes, stretching. There were certain drawbacks to sleeping in a ball. My back popped a couple times like it usually did and I sighed, letting my arms fall to their resting position. My forearms each made rather loud contact with my hips. I bent to pick my phone up off the ground and it had, in fact, been pressed up against the sticker-covered clarinet case.

I hit the end button and watched the screen light up, revealing my abstract purple lock screen background along with the time. It was 8:47. I saw the little yellow envelope symbol indicating that I had at least one message. I ran my thumb over the screen, flinging the display to the upper right hand corner of the screen. A half second later, a keypad appeared for me to type my passcode in. I quickly did so and my home screen appeared. I smiled just like I did every time I saw it. It was the first selfie that my best friend and I had ever taken and we looked ridiculous. Granted, we both were attractive, however... The amount of pink that we were both wearing was excessive.

My old glasses were slightly too low on my face, I noticed. Then again, that wasn't anything too unusual. Sat in the band like we usually were, we had used pink eyeshadow to write the number 15 on our faces, one number on each cheek. I could see the large maroon bass drum in the background. I wore a necklace that she had given me 5 years ago that had black and pink eighth notes and treble clefs on either side of a guitar. We each had a pink hair band around our heads, and the simple hot pink one that matched hers was around my neck. The one around my head was metallic pink and silver, and I could not for the life of me remember where I got it. All I knew is that I really wanted the matching one that was teal and purple to come back from whatever depths that it had disappeared to. We wore matching pink shirts that read "TH15 IS OUR HOUSE" on the front with "SENIORS '15" on the back. Color Wars at our school was an intense thing, and our color was obviously pink that year.

It was hard to believe that this picture was 10 months old and I was an official graduate of high school. Most of my friends were getting ready for college, and then there was me. I was one of the three kids in my class going into the armed forces. I was going to be a Nuclear Electrical Technician in the Navy. Weird to think that little old me from west bubblefuck upstate New York where nothing ever happened was going to be someone who could help change the world.

I shook my head and realized what I had unlocked my phone to do. Check my messages. There was a red bubble above the green message button that had the number nine in it. Well, at least I like the number nine. It was probably mostly Twitter notifications, there was no way I was this popular this early in the morning. I tapped the icon and sighed. Yep, just as I suspected, there were 8 messages from Twitter. I quickly flicked through each individual message and hit the back button to go back into my inbox. I tapped the 'More' button in the lower left hand side of the screen and slowly scrolled through the options until I found the 'Go to Vault' one and tapped it. My phone asked me for the vault code and I quickly entered it. It took me to my vault inbox and I saw a message from one of my younger friends, claiming she didn't want to be awake this early. I rotated my phone to the left and slid it open, touching the 'Reply' option on the screen. I quickly typed out my response, telling her that I didn't want to be awake either, hit send, slid the phone shut and tossed it onto the bed, the pink faces of my best friend and I smiling up at me. I had a basic phone. It was touch screen, but it slid to have a keyboard. It could call, text, take pictures/videos and that was it. I didn't need a smartphone though, I was perfectly content with the basic phone that I had.

I turned on my heel and walked out of my cluttered room, not before grabbing my glasses from on top of my closed dark blue laptop on my even more cluttered desk. I was heading for the kitchen on the opposite end of the house to grab a pear. If I was going to run, I was not doing it on a completely empty stomach nor with a lingering feeling of nausea. The nausea wasn't too awful bad considering it was ten minutes to nine at this point, but it was still there. Besides, I guess I was kind of used to it, considering it had been a pretty much daily occurrence for the past two years if I woke up before ten. Which was almost every day. I grabbed the pear and walked back to my room to change into my running gear and felt a sudden but persistent pounding in my head.

"Ugh... Don't tell me I have a headache _this_ early in the morning. That's bullshit..." I said before taking a bite of my pear. It made a crunch as my teeth sunk into it, clearly it wasn't ripe yet. That wasn't going to stop me from it eating it though. I enjoyed pears, be they ripe or not quite.

I realized that I spoke aloud and shook my head. I didn't know why I kept doing that, there was no one here to listen and understand me. Both of my parents were at work, I had no siblings, and the two cats couldn't understand a word that I said. Although, it seemed typical that I would randomly voice my thoughts, it was too quiet in the house.

I got back to my room and pulled out my running clothes- a tighter pair of sweatpants that weren't as bulky as the ones that I was wearing (to be honest they were a little form fitting) and one of my nine plain grey 'wife-beater' tank tops. I finished the pear rather quickly and regretfully got changed out of my comfortable pajamas and into my running gear. I put on a pair of grey socks and sat on my tan carpeted floor to put my white and purple Nike shoes on.

I was in the middle of tying the second shoe when the headache that I successfully ignored until now became about ten times worse. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, feeling my glasses shift repeatedly as I moved my fingers in a circular motion trying to relieve myself of this now killer headache. With a sigh, I gave up and finished tying my shoe.

I gave a grunt of exertion as I stood up, head still pounding. I should probably reconsider going out on this run but I was already dressed and there really needed to be a limit on how lazy I could be. My vision all of a sudden became blurry and my brow furrowed.

"What the fuck..." I muttered before I felt myself start to fall and everything went completely black.

Phil was in the living room making us some lunch while I cleaned up the office from filming a video. Not just any video. It was March 26th and today was the day that the trailer for mine and Phil's book would be uploaded on my channel. He and I had just finished filming a video that explained things about it, and I was so excited. I couldn't wait to see how everyone reacted to it. It was going to be fantastic.

The majority of our gear was deconstructed and put back where it was supposed to be when we weren't using it when I heard something fall in the lounge with a soft _thump_ and I stood up straighter. Had Phil dropped something? I walked out to check on him, sticking my head into the lounge, only to find the room empty.

"What?" I said softly. I stepped further into the room, and froze as I saw something on the ground. Not something, some _one_.

There was a body on the floor in the middle of our lounge.

"PHIL!" I yelled out the doorway.

"Dan? Is everything alright?" I heard his faint response gradually grow in volume as he walked out of the kitchen. His face was slightly contorted in worry as he stood in front of me. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

I took a slow breath and looked into his eyes. "There's a body on the floor of our lounge."

/ / / / / / / / / ~ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

 _I hope you all enjoyed my first posted fanfiction. I've written stories before, so this isn't the first time that I've written something, I've just never had the courage to actually post anything. XD_

 _I'm really excited for all of you to read this, I'm quite proud of it. Expect more chapters to be up soon, but don't expect a specific updating schedule (not unless everyone really likes it haha)._

 _Cover art is my own.  
_

 _Shoutout to tumblr user humhowellelujah for being my beta reader!_

 _Don't forget to fav, review, and follow!  
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 _My social media (in case anyone cared):  
_ **Twitter-** cynx_17_kh  
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Wattpad-** /users/cynx-17-kh


	2. Chapter 2

We stood there silently for a second as my words hung heavily in the air. Phil blinked slowly, processing what I said.

"Are you joking? Dan, are you trying to prank me?" Phil asked me. His voice wavered slightly. "It's... It's not a _dead_ body is it?"

I looked down and ruffled my fringe a little. "I didn't check."

"Dan!" his eyes widened slightly and he had a disapproving tone. He pushed past me into the lounge and I turned to follow him.

Phil was kneeling down besides the body that was sprawled out face down on the floor and hesitantly reached out to check for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not a dead body then?" I asked, crouching beside him. "Well that makes it easier for us."

"Except for the fact that now there's an unconscious body on the floor of our lounge that we need to try to revive."

"Who said we need to-" he cut me off by slapping my shoulder. "Ow! Okay, okay. We'll try your idea."

We both reached out and turned the body onto its back. It was considerably smaller than us, both in height and in width. Seriously, it look like it had sticks for arms. The wrists were tiny and fragile, plus there was practically no weight to it when we moved it. Phil supported the head as we gently let go, looking at the face of our mysterious guest.

"Looks like our visitor wears glasses. See the red imprints on the bridge of the nose?" Phil said, pointing at them, but not touching them.

"Yeah, but then where are the glasses?" I said, turning my gaze to him rather than the freckled face of the unconscious person on our floor.

"Over there, by the tele." Phil said and pointed. "Could you go and get them, bear? We might as well have them handy when they wake up. We don't know if they have mole vision like me."

I nodded when I saw them and stood up. I smiled at Phil's use of my nickname. I walked towards the glasses and bent to pick them up. They had a greenish-teal metal frame and were a similar shape to Phil's glasses. The sides were thick and plastic and had a snakeskin pattern that was the same color of the metal. I folded them and I walked back over to Phil and sat on the ground beside him, setting the glasses on the coffee table behind us. Phil had taken up lightly shaking the person and whispering the word 'hey' over and over again.

I watched him do that for about fifteen seconds before getting tired of hearing him sound like a broken record, so I spoke up. "Phil that probably won't do anything."

He looked over at me and sat back on his feet, putting his arms in his lap. "I have to try, don't I? This person can't stay unconscious on our floor forever."

With that, I heard a small groan and I jumped. I looked down at our guest and saw that they had started to sit up. My left arm flew out and grabbed Phil's forearm, holding it tightly. I hadn't been expecting them to wake up so quickly.

A pair of chocolate brown eyes that mirrored my own looked at us slowly as if trying to figure out who we were, then widened a lot, and then the person tried to scramble to their feet with a scream. At least, I think it was supposed to be a scream. No noise came from the mysterious visitor's mouth.

Getting to a standing position didn't seem to work very well. The now fully conscious body that had been on our floor didn't seem to be able to control their body and fell backwards onto their behind before standing all the way up.

I stared this now terrified person, still trying to figure out how they got in here and Phil reached out a little, shocked that they had fallen.

Well, our guest was awake now. And was absolutely terrified.

I heard noise that I couldn't really place and I groaned as I realized there was an annoying pounding in my head. It felt like I was laying down so I sat up. It was difficult, and for some reason my entire body ached. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times before realizing that the general haze to my vision wasn't going away. Weird.

I looked around a little. There were windows to my one side and to the other, there were people. One with black hair and blues eyes and the other with dark brown hair and brown eyes. It occurred to me that I didn't know who these two people were. And that I didn't know who I was. I tried to stand and get away from them but as I got up, my knees gave out and I fell backwards. I tried to scream, but no sound came out.

What? I couldn't speak? No, no that didn't seem quite right, not at all. I knew I could speak, at least, I thought I did... My breathing seemed faster than it should be and I felt my heart beating fiercely in my chest. My head still hurt for no real reason and my brow furrowed. I scooted as far backwards as I could before I came into contact with something. When I did, I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I was scared and confused. Who were those people in front of me? Who was I? Where was I? What was happening?

I assumed the two figures that got blurrier as I got further away from them were male given their hairstyle and body shape. As well as their size, they were huge... The one on the left seemed bigger than the other one, but the one on the right had his arm extended. Well, the one that wasn't being held by the other man. The man on the left wore a plain black t-shirt and the other man had a grey sweater on that had brown blurs on it. I couldn't really tell what the blurs were, he was too far away. They both had black pants that looked like they were really tight.

"Oh, please don't be frightened of us. We won't hurt you." The one on the right said, I think. I wasn't entirely sure. They were kinda far away and were pretty blurry.

"Speaking of being hurt, are you hurt? If you are, please let us know so we can help you." The other one said.

Both of their voice were rather low, so at this point it was pretty safe to assume they were guys. They also had strange accents, they didn't sound anything like the voice I heard in my head. I opened my mouth to speak and realized I couldn't get any sound out. I looked down slightly and tried to think. If I couldn't tell them how I was with words, how could I tell them? I looked back up at them and saw that they had turned their gazes on each other. I had an idea.

I tapped the ground beside me with my hand and they looked over at me. I covered my mouth and shook my head, indicating that I couldn't speak. I was still terrified, but they seemed nice. And sounded concerned. I wouldn't trust them entirely yet, but I needed their help in figuring out who I was. And where I was, as well as what happened.

"You can't speak? Okay, so um..." the one on the left said before looking at the other one for support.

"Could you point at any part of your body that hurts? Or shake your head from side to side if you're not in any pain?"

I nodded and removed my hand from my mouth. I pointed to my head because that headache was still there.

"Your head? Did you hit it?"

"Or do you have a headache?"

I pointed at the one on the right and nodded.

"I was right? Okay then... Dan, could you go get some Tylenol and a glass of water?"

The man on the left stood up and I watched as he did so. Oh my god he was really tall... He went out of a hole in the wall that was presumably a doorway, but that was much too far for me to distinguish.

"Do you hurt anywhere else?"

I paused. Other than a dull ache throughout my body and centered in my joints, I didn't hurt. I shook my head.

"That's a miracle... I was hoping you weren't really injured, a trip to the hospital would have been awkward, especially when they asked us who you were and where we found you."

I tilted my head to the side. Did that mean they were as clueless as I was about my identity and origin?

"Oh, yeah, we don't know who you are and where you came from. Could you tell us?"

He kept referring to himself and the other guy, Dan I think his name was, as 'us'. I wondered if they were a couple or if they just lived together. Either or, I shook my head to answer his question.

"Oh..." he said softly.

Dan came back into the room and slowly approached me with a cup and something, presumably medicine, in his other hand. He knelt down in front of me and offered the glass to me.

"No other injuries?" he asked.

I shook my head as I took the cup of water and he gave me two pills. I took a sip of the water and dropped the pills into my mouth, swallowing them. I took another sip of the water and handed the glass back to him. I got a better look at him now that he was close to me. He was really handsome.

"Well that's good to hear. Oh! What um... What's your gender? I didn't want to assume you were a girl by the way you looked. I really hate misgendering people."

I blinked in shock. I let my knees down and crossed my legs, sitting up straighter. I looked down and saw what I was wearing. A grey tank top that had a black and bright purple thing under it- a sports bra. The term just came to me. I also was wearing black sweatpants and shoes that were white and grey with purple laces. A girl. I was a girl.

I looked back up at him and my brow furrowed. How was I going to tell him? I had an idea and looked at my hands. Whoa, I had long nails. I lifted them up and made an hourglass figure in the air. That should say female to him.

"So you are a girl? Cool." He smiled and I swear everything good in the world would never be as beautiful as his smile. His entire face lit up and it was amazing. "Well, mystery girl. My name is Dan Howell."

"I'm Phil Lester. Now, if we only knew your name..." The other man said as appeared next to Dan. Phil looked at Dan. "By the way, she has no idea who she is or how she got here. We established that as you fetched the medicine."

"Oh, well then. We'll just have to give you a name, eh? Can't have you staying here and be nameless. That would be weird."

"Oh please, Dan. This is our house, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing that's happened."

"That's a good point, Phil. So what should we name her? Delia?"

"Dan! We're not naming her Delia."

"Phiiiiiiiiil... Why not?"

I shook my head. No, that didn't sound like my name. Although, the end did sound rather familiar.

"See? She doesn't want to be called Delia either."

"Oh, fiiiiiine. We'll give her a different name."

I was staring at Phil now. He was just as attractive as Dan, and it was mildly alarming. I was in the presence of two very attractive men arguing about what my name should be, and I didn't even know what I looked like. My hand went up to my face and involuntarily, with my fingers still fully extended, my middle finger ran up the length of my nose and I felt a sense of shock as it didn't meet anything. Glasses. I wore glasses. That's why they were blurry when they were far and not so blurry up close.

I snapped my fingers to gain their attention as they had stopped paying attention to me and were focused on playfully arguing about a name for me. When they heard me snap, they immediately stopped talking and looked at me. I probably should have figured out a way to tell them that I was supposed to have glasses before getting their attention.

I tapped my temples a couple times and then made a pair of circles around my eyes.

"Her glasses!"

"Phil, you spork. You forgot about her glasses!"

Phil reached behind him and grabbed something off of the table. When he handed them to me, I saw that they were a pair of glasses. I put them on and blinked as the two men became even more focused. I looked around a bit and saw that where Dan had exited earlier was in fact a doorway and not just a random hole in their wall. The blurs on Phil's sweater were actually foxes. The two men were even more attractive now that I could actually see them.

I smiled and nodded once, trying to thank them. They both returned my smile and I felt at home almost. They were really nice.

"Alright, Dan. We need to be serious about naming her."

"We're not naming her Striker, Phillip."

"I wasn't going to say that!"

"You totally were, don't even try to deny it."

"Maybe a little, but I wasn't going to _actually_ say it."

"So you just thought it."

"Yeah. Now be serious, _Daniel_. We have a nameless girl in our flat who needs a name."

They sat in silence, each trying to think of a name for me, and I thought too. The –ia ending sounded awfully familiar to me, so maybe my name ended with that.

Dan broke the silence and looked like he had an idea. "Hey, do you remember when I showed you that video this one girl put up? It was about how she played with our genetics on the Sims 4 to create what our children would look like."

"Oh, yeah. And there were 6 total?"

"Right, and half of them were girls. I'm think that we should try out those names. I mean, we're going to be taking care of this girl until we can figure out who she really is. It'll be like having a daughter. So why not give the name of one of our daughters from that video?"

Phil nodded. "That's a great idea. Do you remember all three of them? I only remember Clarissa, because I thought it was a pretty name."

"Clarissa! That was the other one. For some reason I could never remember it."

I knocked on the ground and when they looked at me I shook my head. Clarissa was a nice name, but it didn't sound right.

"So no on Clarissa? Okay, so what were the other two, Dan?"

"One of them was Antonia." He said while looking at me for a reaction.

My brow furrowed. The –ia ending sounded familiar in this name too, but it still wasn't right. I shook my head.

"No... Okay, the last one was Tia."

My eyes widened. Wait a second. That one sounded right! I sat up straighter and nodded. That sounded like my real name... Whatever it really was.

"Wait, really? You like that name?" Phil asked, surprise showing on his face amongst the happiness.

I nodded again as Dan spoke. "That's perfect. From this day until the day you remember who you are, you shall be known as Tia Howell, and we'll take care of you as if you were our daughter until that day. Even afterwards, you'll still have a home with us and we'll still think of you as our daughter. Right, Phil?"

Phil was smiling from ear to ear and it was quite possibly one of the most adorable things ever. "Exactly, Dan. Welcome to your new home, Tia."

I had a huge grin on my face and I felt genuinely happy. It had only been a few minutes since I had woken up in the middle of the room with no memories, no family, no name, and no voice, and here I was now with new memories, two fathers, a name, and while I had no voice, I could still communicate.

I was going to enjoy my time here, I could already tell.

/ / / / / / / / / ~ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

 _I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I really enjoyed writing some bants between Dan and Phil ^-^ The next chapter is coming soon!_

 _Cover art is my own._

 _Shout out to Tumblr user hyper-on-nothing for beta reading this chapter!_

 _Don't forget to favorite, review, and maybe even follow me! It helps my soul.  
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 _Bye!_


	3. Chapter 3

They helped me get to my feet and I heard various popping, clicking, and snapping noises coming from my joints. My brow furrowed. That was very strange... The noises didn't cause me any pain, but Dan and Phil had a visible amount of concern on their faces. They glanced at each other and then back at me.

I waved my hand in a kind of vague fashion and nodded to try and indicate that I was okay. It wasn't like I was really lying. Sure, I didn't know why my joints were making these noises so I couldn't tell if there was something serious wrong, however, it didn't hurt.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Phil asked me, his voice laden with concern. "That sounded painful."

"She sounds like you, old man." Dan said with a smirk before laughing.

I couldn't help myself, I grinned too. Dan's smile was infectious. Phil smiled too, which led me to think that this kind of banter was normal between them.

"She sounds like your mum, _Daniel_." He fired back at Dan, his eyes sparkling.

Wow. They had an amazing friendship... It made me wish I had a friend like that. Maybe I did, but for now, I think I would just enjoy being in the presence of their friendship. It made me really happy for reasons I couldn't place.

Dan placed a hand over his heart and feigned a hurt look. "Why, _Philip_... That hurt."

Phil rolled his eyes. "Enough banter, Dan. We have a house guest to take care of. Remember?"

"Wait, does that mean you're helping too?" Dan had an incredulous look on his face, not that I was entirely sure what that meant. My brain was trying to keep up with their accents and how fast they were talking. I wasn't used to it yet.

"Actually shut up. Of course I am." He grinned and looked at me. They were both still supporting me by holding my arms. "Now, Tia... First things first is to see what you do remember. Dan, why don't we set her down on the couch and get her a pen and some paper so she can write to us?"

With a nod, Dan helped Phil guide me over to the couch. I probably would have protested their help in some way, but my knees and hips felt weak, so I let them. As soon as I was sat down, Dan left the room. Phil sat next to me and I looked into his eyes, a modicum of concern still written in them. They weren't just blue, they also had green and yellow in them. His eyes were beautiful. In fact both men who were helping me were beautiful. Each one more handsome than the other... I wasn't sure why I thought that, but it sounded very familiar. Perhaps I had heard it somewhere before.

"Are you frightened? Because if you are, please don't be. Dan and I are completely harmless, and aren't very physically fit at all. In fact, we're horribly unfit, and equally so. Just because we're really tall doesn't mean anything."

I smiled. I noticed that he rambled a little when he was nervous. I placed my finger to his lips to stop him from talking and just shook my head. I wasn't scared, at least not anymore. I had been initially because I didn't know where I was or who they were. Granted, I still had no idea where I was besides in the home of Dan and Phil, but I at least knew who they were now, and I knew that they were really nice. Hopefully it wasn't just some façade that they put up in order to kill me.

Oh. I guess I'm paranoid, aren't I? It'll be weird learning things about myself as I lived with them. But it was also exciting. Maybe I'd learn something about myself that I hadn't known before this whole ordeal.

"I have the pad and pencil." Dan said as he entered the room again. I looked over at him and he offered me the notebook and pencil.

I took them both and nodded, mouthing a quick 'thank you' as I did so.

"You're welcome." They spoke in sync and I took a moment to glance between the two of them. They didn't seem shocked by it, so it must happen frequently.

I set the notepad down on my lap and held the pencil in my right hand. I paused, then put the pencil in my left hand. For some strange and unknown reason, I couldn't quite figure out which hand I wrote with. I stared blankly at the pencil, as if the answer was written on it, but I still couldn't figure it out. The pencil felt right in both hands, but why? My brow furrowed slightly, and I was getting a little frustrated. I felt the sofa next to me sink down, and with a glance to my right, I saw that Dan had sat down.

"Tia?" he said softly. "Is everything alright?"

I shook my head. I held the pencil up in my left hand, then passed it to my right hand so that they could see the action and then sighed. I shrugged my shoulders and turned my palms up towards the ceiling, not quite releasing my grip on the pencil in my right hand.

"...You don't know your handedness, do you?" Dan asked.

I shook my head. I demonstrated how I held the pencil in both hands, and tried to convey that it felt proper in both.

"Perhaps you're ambidextrous." Phil mused. I saw him smirk and he chuckled. "Wouldn't that be funny, Dan? We adopt a daughter who happens to be both right and left handed, as if she were actually a combination of us."

Dan laughed. "That would be our luck, wouldn't it? Just like with Dil. We never meant for him to be such a perfect combination of us."

"Very true, he did end up a lot more like us than we intended." Phil said with a smile. He looked back down at my hands and took the pencil from my left hand in put it in my right. "To me, it looked like that when you were holding this, your right hand seemed to hold it more firmly, so I think that maybe when it comes to writing, you are right handed."

I nodded at his very reasonable solution and held the pencil. I had noticed that I held it differently depending on which hand it was in. When I held the writing utensil in my left hand, I used only three fingers to hold it. When I held it in my right hand, I used four fingers to hold it. Phil's assumption was probably correct, my right hand seemed like it had held a pencil more often, just by how I grasped it.

I set the tip of the pencil to the paper and wrote the first thing that came to my mind.

 _Hi._

I was a little shocked at my writing, but I shouldn't have been. One, it was _my_ writing, and two, I should expect things like this to be unusual to me, because I remembered pretty much nothing. I looked at both of them before looking back down at the paper, then back at them. I was facing Phil when Dan spoke.

"Hi, Tia." Dan said. I turned my head towards him and saw that he had a smile on his face. "Now, do you remember anything about yourself?"

I looked down at the paper and brought my left hand to my lips. I gently held a small part of my lower lip between my thumb and forefinger and let go of it. I repeated this several times as I thought. When I went to write my answer, my left hand moved down to my collar bones, holding some of the fabric of my shirt.

 _My favorite colours are purple, black, and grey. At least I think so. Judging by what I'm wearing that seems accurate..._

I paused my writing and my brow furrowed. My left hand was flat on my neckline and something didn't feel right, so I made note of it.

 _My neck doesn't feel right. It feels like something is missing._

They read the two lines quickly and I noticed that sometimes my letters were joined together, written in a single stroke rather than in multiple like some of the other letters that I wrote. But it wasn't cursive, not quite anyway. At least it was still mostly legible. Mostly.

"Something is missing? Perhaps you wear a necklace?" Phil suggested. Dan nodded in agreement, but was no longer looking at me. He was gazing at something across the room.

I nodded. Yeah, that sounded about right. However, for some reason I felt that I'd wear two necklaces if I wore them. I held up two fingers before returning my left hand to where it had rested on my chest.

"Two? Oh... There must be meaning behind them then, at least that's what I would assume."

 _I think you're right, I believe that I did have a reason for wearing both of them. At least when I first started wearing them. Now, for some reason, I have this feeling like I wear them out of habit. It doesn't feel quite right without wearing them._

After I finished scribbling away and the two men had read what I wrote, Dan stood up and walked across the lounge. He picked something up off of the bookshelf and returned to the couch. When he opened his hand, I saw two necklaces.

My eyes widened. Those necklaces... There was a small red crystal heart charm on a silver chain that looked shorter than the other necklace whose charm had a picture of a moon in a waxing gibbous phase and a small black stone underneath. It was on a dark grey chain. I wasn't sure how I knew that the moon was in that particular phase, but I did for some reason, and it didn't shock me.

 _Yes, those are my necklaces! I recognize them..._

I wrote hastily. Dan smiled and handed one to Phil.

"Here, let us put them on for you." He said, unclasping the chain on the moon necklace.

I nodded and felt Phil drape the heart necklace on my neckline, clasping the chain shut. Dan followed suit as soon as Phil's hands retracted.

 _Thank you._

I felt the two necklaces resting on my skin, their chains the perfect length for the charms to not touch. I felt a swell of happiness in my chest as I held them. Yes, this felt right.

"You're welcome, Tia."

"I'm glad we could make you happy. That's what Phil and I try to do with our jobs, is make others happy."

 _Jobs? What do you do?_

Phil stood up and offered his hand to help me up. I took it and stood, Dan following suit.

"Well you see, Dan and I are what's called 'Youtubers'."

"That means that we film short videos and post them on the internet, on a site called Youtube. That's our job."

"But only because we have so many people who watch us. They're called subscribers. Dan has four and a half million subscribers."

"Phil only has two and a half million, which makes no sense because we do almost everything together. I won't rest until Phil and I have the same amount of subscribers."

I looked at each one of them as they spoke and saw how they weren't looking at me anymore. They were looking at each other with looks of adoration and it made me smile. They seemed like amazing friends and it made me wish that I had a friend like that. Phil had a huge grin on his face and he laughed. I noticed that his tongue stuck out from in between his teeth slightly on the right side of his mouth, and it was really cute.

"Daaaaaaaan. It's fine. You deserve all of your subscribers."

"And you deserve all of my subscribers too. Phil, we have a gaming channel. I appear in almost all of your videos, even if it's just you saying my name."

"And it's the same vice versa."

"Exactly, so explain why there are two million people that are subscribed to me and not to you?"

Phil paused as if he was trying to think of an answer. This seemed like a conversation they had frequently, and it wasn't a fight either. If anything, I would say that Phil appreciated how much Dan wanted him to be put as his equal in their community. It was sweet.

"I can't, Dan. You know that. It's their choice."

"I know it's their choice, Philly, but they're choosing wrong. Your videos are amazing."

"Nice pun, you're on fire today, aren't you?"

Dan gave Phil a look. "You had to, didn't you."

Phil smiled and Dan started to laugh. "Of course, danisnotonfire."

"Alright, AmazingPhil, but remember that your videos are the reason that we're here today. The reason that _I'm_ here today. With you."

"I know that, Daniel. And not a day goes by where I'm not thankful that I actually noticed you on Twitter and started talking to you all those years ago."

Then the stopped talking and just stared at each other, and I could swear that I saw love in their eyes. So much love that they couldn't've been 'just friends'. I began to feel awkward, so I cleared my throat and I saw panic cross their faces as they realize that they had forgotten about my presence in the room with them.

"Oh. We're sorry, Tia." Dan said with an apologetic smile as he fluffed his hair.

"Yeah, those conversations have a tendency to get really nostalgic really fast." Phil gave a nervous chuckle and glanced at Dan. It looked like they were both blushing a little. "Anyway, come with us. It's easier if we just show you one of our videos."

"Good idea Phil. Which one should we show her?"

"I was thinking about letting her watch all of the PINOF videos."

I tilted my head. Peenawf? What was that? I tapped Dan's arm and gave him a confused expression.

He smiled gently. "PINOF is short for Phil Is Not On Fire. We filmed the first one six years ago when we first met in person, and it's become a yearly tradition. It's what's known as a collab, or collaboration."

"Although, it kind of stopped being a true collaboration the third year because you didn't do a third Amazing Dan that year."

"That's true, but PINOF always went over better with the fans. Maybe this year we'll make a surprise Amazing Dan."

Phil turned back towards me. "Oh and in case you were wondering about the name of the videos, they are a combination of our usernames on Youtube. I'm Amazing Phil."

"And I'm danisnotonfire. PINOF is posted on his channel every year in October or November and Amazing Dan was posted on my channel for the first two years. There's only two of those, but I guess we could have her watch those too. Phil?"

"Yeah, that works. And we'll have her watch the PINOF 4 bloopers as well as the PINOF 6 bloopers, right?"

"Of course, those are hysterical."

I smiled. They were doing it again. They would just get lost in each other's presence and it was just magical to watch. They had to be in love. Seriously, what else could it be at this point?

"Okay, Dan, let's stop distracting ourselves and get to watching the videos."

Dan just smiled and we started walking out of the room. As we left, I looked around and tried to memorize what I saw, just to make sure I didn't forget anything about this place.

We walked into a room that had a computer on a desk and Phil had me sit in the chair while Dan started typing on the keyboard.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how I knew what these things were, but I was thankful that I had at least some idea of what was going on.

Phil had settled on the couch behind me and as soon as Dan had pulled the video up, he joined Phil on the couch. I tried to ignore how close they sat together, until I saw them subtly entwining their fingers together. I smiled and looked back at the screen.

"Just click the mouse when you're ready to watch, okay?" Phil said gently.

I nodded, still smiling. I placed my right hand on the mouse before looking at it and switching to my left hand.

I was ready to watch these videos that seemed to have made the two men who were now my caretakers so happy. And part of me could tell that they were head over heels in love with each other and that made me happy.

My smile widened, and I clicked the mouse.

/ / / / / ~ \ \ \ \ \

Thanks for reading guys. I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about Tia. I hope I made it clear enough for understanding where she was writing.

New chapter coming soon!


	4. Chapter 4

Many days had passed and had turned into a couple weeks. I knew where I was –London, England- as well as British Sign Language. Dan and Phil had learned it with me so that I could talk to them. However, they quickly realized that if I needed to contact them when they were out, there would have to be some way to communicate without speaking, since for reasons unknown, I still couldn't make a sound. So they bought me an iPhone. I frequently text them even when we're in the house because BSL was tiring. The two men also weren't the best at it either. While they weren't really near being fluent, I was closer, but for longer statements... Well. Texting was just easier for me.

With the purchase of my phone, I had to make a promise: keep learning BSL. To this, I told my parents that they too had to keep learning it if I did. I remember the slightly disheartened look on Dan's face, but Phil had quickly agreed before Dan could get a word of protest in.

That was how their relationship was, I learned. They knew each other very well and would impulsively make a decision for the other if he was hesitant. Somehow, it worked and never seemed to cause a fight. It always struck me as strange how little they fought.

I sat on my bed playing a game called "The Panic Room: House of Secrets" where I had to find objects in various rooms of a house to complete quests and solve the mysteries of said house when a knock on the door caused me to jump and look away from my phone. I looked over to the door, took my headphones out, and my eyes met a pair that mirrored my own. I smiled. It was Dan. His hair was curly and he was still in his pajama pants, as well as what appeared to be one of Phil's shirts.

 _Hi, Dad._ I signed.

"Hey. I didn't think you were awake yet. It's kind of early." He replied with a smile that showed his dimple. Papa loved Dad's dimple, despite the fact that Dad hated it.

 _Didn't really sleep. Normally I wouldn't be up, you know that. Oh, and your dimple is showing. Why are you so chipper at seven o'clock in the morning?_

I typically signed slowly and mouthed the words as I did so that it made it slightly easier on my parents to understand me, but today I wasn't mouthing the words at all. I didn't feel like reminding myself that no matter how much my lips moved, no sound would come out. Instead I just smiled.

He chuckled. "Oh nothing, I'm glad you're up though, even if you didn't sleep well. Phil and I have something to show you."

 _Dad..._ I exaggerated the sign, trying to resemble a groan. The little nuances of speech were hard to replicate by signing. I couldn't hide my excitement though. _What the hell did you two get? Oh, is it another houseplant? Can I keep it in here?_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... Slow down, Tia. You raced through that. I understand you're excited, but could repeat that on slow-mo for me?"

I rolled my eyes and smiled as he winked, slowly repeated what I had just signed.

"Oh my god, Tia." He turned from the door slightly and called out, "PHIL! Our daughter has your plant obsession!"

Our daughter. Hearing that made me smile, and my smile widened as I heard Papa laugh and yell a 'yes!' in response.

Dad turned back towards me. "No, it's not another bloody houseplant. And no, you can't put one in my room! You'll mess up the aesthetic!"

 _It's not your room anymore, you haven't slept in here since way before I came._

"Yeah, but I still film in here. So no plants!"

 _Not even a cute succulent on the desk?_

"No."

 _Please?_

"No plants in my room!"

"Oh, c'mon, Bear. Let her have a plant in here." Phil suddenly appeared next to Dan in the doorway with a smirk.

I snapped a few times before signing to ensure I had their attention. _Think of it as a hint to your fans. Just never acknowledge it. Or, if you do, say that Phil finally convinced you to get a plant. We could make sure that it's very Dan._

Dad paused and thought about it for a moment. "That might be a good idea..."

For the past two weeks or so, I had been helping my fathers place subtle hints in their videos and tweets to both my presence and to them being a couple. They officially came out to me about three and a half weeks ago, deciding that if I was going to live with them, I should probably know about them. I mean, I had already guessed that they were together, they both slept in Phil's room. Then there were the looks. Such loving glances were exchanged, always. It was really adorable.

"Really, Dan? You'll let me get a plant for your room?" Phil embraced him and the both laughed. A quick kiss followed. "That's great!"

"On two conditions, it has to be small and it has to fit my room's aesthetic."

"Fiiine." Phil was grinning from ear to ear and his eyes were sparkling.

"Okay, back to what I came here for..." Dan turned towards me. "C'mon. We have something to show you."

I wondered what they could possibly be showing me and climbed off of the black and grey checkered duvet. The bed was still pretty much made, indicating how little I actually slept.

I got to sleep and pretty much live in Dan's old room. He hadn't slept there in months. Apparently, he preferred Phil's room, and that worked out perfectly. Of course, he still filmed in his own room. It would be very suspicious if he didn't.

I slowly followed my fathers out of my room and towards the lounge. I really began to wonder what it was that these two were going to show me, and I was slightly worried at why they were both so happy about it.

When we were about halfway to the lounge, they both stopped, turning to face me. My brow furrowed and I raised my hands to start signing my confusion, but Dad spoke before I could.

"Since it's a surprise, we're going to blindfold you."

 _What?!_

The look on my face was a combination of shock and horror. It probably looked very strange, as the two men burst out laughing.

"Relax, Tia. It's nothing serious."

"Phil's right. We just want to have you settled so that you can experience the surprise all at once."

"Do you trust us?" Papa held up a red ribbon with a tentative look on his face.

I nodded, taking my glasses off and closing my eyes. I heard footsteps and my glasses were taken from my hands as the ribbon made contact with my face.

I snapped my fingers, indicating that I wanted to sign.

"Go ahead, kit." Dan said softly, using his and Phil's nickname for me.

 _I'm not sure if I'm signing this right because I can't see my hands, but I hope you two know what you're doing. I'm realizing that I don't like not being able to see. So let's get on with it, okay?_

I signed slowly, unsure, and smiled as I finished to let them know that I was poking fun about wanting this to be done. Granted, I did want to be able to see, but I was excited for what was in store.

"You signed perfectly, Tia. No need to worry about that." Phil's voice came from my left as he gently took my arm, careful not to startle me.

"And there's no need to worry about anything else. We promise it's nothing creepy." Dan's voice appeared on my right and he took hold of my other arm. "Ready? We're going to start walking now."

I nodded and the three if us started moving down the hallway. I was tiny compared to my two giant dads. It was a little unnerving at times to always have to look up at them. I'm nearly 30 centimeters shorter than them and really thin, so I always feel very tiny next to them.

We slowly turned and I guessed that we were stepping into the lounge. They helped me sit down on the sofa, presumably near Dad's sofa crease, and I let myself sink into the plush furniture a little bit.

 _Okay, I'm here. What's the big surprise?_

My signing was still very slow. I really didn't want to screw up while trying to say something just because I couldn't see. It made me slightly nervous even though I knew my dads wouldn't judge me.

Dad and Papa laughed at the same time, Papa with his small chuckling laugh and Dad with a short hyena cackle. If I had my guess, Dad's dimple was showing and Papa's tongue was sticking out of the corner of his mouth. They both had such distinguishing quirks and it made me feel really content.

"Relax, kit. Me and Dan were just getting to that"

"You're so impatient, Tia."

"Sounds like someone else I know."

"Oh fuck off. She has your plant obsession.

"And your existential crisis problem."

"And your random fact spurts in conversation."

I snapped my fingers to get their attention, but they just kept going. I didn't even know what they were trying to prove or accomplish or anything.

"Your eyes."

"Your glasses."

"Your hobbit hair."

"She attracts strange people."

"She wears your aesthetic."

"Only half the time, she wears yours the other half."

"She has your sweaterpaws."

"She has your natural hair color."

I tried snapping again, but to no avail. They weren't listening.

"Your smile."

"Your skin tone."

"Your hands"

"Your freckles."

"She has way more freckles than me."

"Only because she probably went outside a lot, unlike you, you spork. You remember what she was wearing when she came here, don't you? She looked like she was about to go workout or go on a run or something."

"Fine, but she has your awkwardly long arms."

"She has your persistence."

"Actually, I think that's your persistence."

"Both of ours, okay?"

"Fine. She has your cooking ability."

"She has your demeanor."

"Only around new people. Once she knows them, she has yours."

"She has... Wow."

"What is it?"

"Just... She's really a perfect combination of us, Phil."

"Yeah, she's even ambidextrous!"

I clapped once, loudly, hoping that I had finally gotten their attention. Seriously, what was the point of that? The mentioned things that happened the couple of times I've left the house while they were doing book stuff and needed groceries. Obviously I was the prime candidate to do just that, so I would go and some of the stories I'd come back with rivaled Phil's, at least according to Dan. Apparently I had met some strange people, and not everyone in London were like the people I met. The also seemed to notice that when they took me shopping for clothes that I was always very polite to those I met I had even made a few actual friends on these escapades, and Papa did have a point. After I got to know someone, I had a demeanor very similar to Dad's –sarcastic and witty, yet still very articulate. Well, as articulate as one can be when only signing or texting.

The clap seemed to have work as both men said "Yes?" at the same time to let me know they were listening. They spoke in unison so often it was like they were married without actually being married yet. It was gross, but it was goals.

 _I'm also sitting right here, could we maybe focus on what we're actually doing out here instead of on the banter?_

"I suppose we could. Dan, the blindfold?"

I assumed that Dan nodded because I then felt him sit down next to me and my glasses were placed in my hands.

He spoke as I felt him start to untie the blindfold. "Keep your eyes closed until we tell you, okay? You can put your glasses on though."

I did as I was told and shut my eyes. When the blindfold was completely away from my face, I slid my glasses on. Papa sat to my left. Usually when we sat on the sofa they sat together, not on either side of me. I began to think that this was for a video, and my suspicions were confirmed when they started talking.

"Hello, Internet."

"Hey guys! So, today is a very special day."

"The day we're filming this, not necessarily the day you're watching this. But Phil's right, today is very special."

"As you probably already noticed, we have a guest with is today."

"And what makes this so special is that today is the day that she's been living with us for exactly a month."

My eyebrows went up. I could tell where this was going. At least, I was pretty sure that I could.

"So today we're having a little celebration!"

"She hasn't seen anything in this room yet..."

"Meaning when she opens her eyes...

"She'll be completely surprised!"

"Right! So, shall we introduce her, Dan?"

"Well, Internet. We'd like to present our daughter."

"Tia Howell."

"We chose my last name because she has my eyes."

"No we didn't, you just dubbed her Tia Howell without even consulting me first."

"Yeah, because Tia Lester sounds so amazing, Phil."

"Dan is definitely not on fire with his bants this morning, guys."

"What can I say, I'm just really excited for Tia to open her eyes."

 _So, can I open them now?_

"One second, kit. Dan, do you think we'll have to put subtitles in for what she says?"

"Actually, that's a good idea, Phil."

 _Only if I get to pick the font. My voice is not getting portrayed in Comic Sans. Sorry, Dad, but no._

I heard a _THUMP_ , which I guessed to be Dad clutching his heart in mock agony. "Rude! My own daughter refused a Comic Sans voice!"

"I don't blame her, Dan. She should have some say in what her voice looks like since she's stuck without it."

"I guess you're right..."

 _Thanks for taking my side, Papa._

"You're welcome, kit. Now, Dan. Shall we have her open her eyes?"

"I think so. Well, go ahead, Tia. Open your eyes."

I slowly did as I was told and opened my eyes, gasping at what I saw before me.

/ / / / / ~ \ \ \ \ \

I hope you guys are enjoying this so far!


	5. Chapter 5

Tia let out a small yet barely audible gasp and I beamed at the camera. Phil and I had painstakingly planned this party of sorts for her for two weeks, hoping that she'd enjoy it.

Even though we were filming it, we weren't sure if we'd ever upload the finished product. I mean, how would we tell our viewers about her in a way that made sense and didn't seem like kidnapping? I cringed slightly and then looked over at Tia who was gazing at everything in the room with her mouth wide open.

 _It's wonderful... Balloons, streamers, a cake? All of this is for me?_

She looked like she was about to cry but Phil placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Of course it's all for you! We've figured out that you're about 18, so we figured that we had missed some birthday parties."

"As your fathers, it's our duty to make sure you have a fulfilling childhood. But you kind of came to us 18 years late for that, so today..."

"We're going to be doing fun things out in London today!"

I looked at the camera. "That's right you guys, as you've probably guessed... We're doing another Day in the Life of Dan and Phil!"

"Phamily edition!"

Tia had a smile on her face that could've lit up the entire planet, she looked so happy. She looked at Phil and then at me, snapping softly and asking for permission to sign to us.

"Go ahead, dear. Say what you want." I smiled gently at her. She was such a precious girl. Very eager to learn new things and very intelligent. I was proud of her.

 _Thank you so so so so much for doing all of this, and I'm not just talking about the party. Everything you've done for me. You've been nothing but kind and caring the entire time I've been here._

"Of course! We would have never wanted to hurt you, despite your peculiar entrance into our lives."

"I mean, you're pretty harmless so there's no need to be violent on our end."

"Dan!"

 _Oh really?_

I saw a smirk tug at her lips and without any other warning, she punched my thigh.

"Abuse!" I yelled, laughing. While we didn't know much about her still, we knew that she was far stronger than she looked and had slightly more than a basic knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. The things we learned about her typically raised more questions than they answered. Which was okay, it meant that we could ask her more specific questions.

"Tia, I'm going to have to ask you to stop injuring my boyfriend." Phil spoke softly and with a noticeable devious smirk.

"Phil!" I exclaimed. "We can't say that on camera!"

I heard snapping and looked at my daughter.

 _Think about it, Dad. When and if you upload this video, you will already have outed yourselves and introduced me. This could be like a series of videos, kind of a way for your viewers to get to know me._

I tilted my head and thought about it. She certainly had a point. "Okay, we'll leave it in."

Phil fistpumped and I laughed. What an absolute spork... I was so lucky to have him as mine.

/ / / / / / / / / ~ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

This is just a little teaser for this chapter to ease you all from the "horrors" of that cliffhanger I left you with. Enjoy! ^-^

I hope you guys liked that little snippet, I'm now officially off hiatus so more may be coming your way soon!

My social media (in case anyone cared):  
Twitter- cynx_17_kh  
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